iBEAM's plan to fix slow web video went through space. In 2000, streaming a clip meant stutters and buffering, because every stream crossed a crowded internet. The Sunnyvale company broadcast content by satellite to its own servers sitting at the edge of the network, close to viewers. From there, each stream had only a short trip left. Microsoft recommended iBEAM to companies using Windows Media. The company went public weeks after the dot-com crash began.

Skipping the Traffic

iBEAM was founded in March 1998 and began selling its internet broadcasting service in October 1999. Its network combined land lines with satellite links. A single satellite broadcast could reach many edge servers at once, which made it cheap to send the same live event to a large audience. The bet was that streaming media would explode and that media companies would pay someone else to carry it.

Falling to Earth

iBEAM priced its IPO at $10 a share in May 2000 and traded on Nasdaq as IBEM. The timing was poor. The market for internet stocks was already sliding, and the customers iBEAM counted on were running out of money too. The company kept losing cash. In October 2001 it filed for bankruptcy. In December 2001 Williams Communications bought substantially all of its assets for $25 million in cash.

Cover: Shooting Stars, from Mélodies de Désiré Dihau, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a shooting star (a beam from the sky).